A new study conducted at Texas A&M University by the Texas Transportation Institute comparing voice-to-text and traditional texting using a smartphone in an actual driving environment. The people behind the study report that the findings show using voice-to-text services are no safer than texting manually while driving.

"In each case, drivers took about twice as long to react as they did when they weren't texting," Christine Yager, who headed the study, told Reuters. "Eye contact to the roadway also decreased, no matter which texting method was used."

The researchers involved in the study used 43 different drivers and had them drive along a test track repeatedly while performing various tasks. The participants drove along the track, with no electronic devices in the car to distract them during one session. The participants then drove along the same test track while using voice to text applications on a smartphone, and another time the drivers drove along the same track on texting manually. Participants used both the iPhone and Android devices during the test.

Interestingly, the study found that using speech to text actually took longer for drivers than traditional texting because the need to go back and correct the often garbled texts composed using voice services.

The study highlights a significant safety concern in that while it found drivers were no safer using voice-to-text services as opposed to manually texting, drivers reported feeling safer when using the former.

Several states and individual cities around the country currently have laws on the books banning texting while driving without using a hands-free device. California is one such state where it is illegal to manually text while driving, but it is legal to send text messages using voice-controlled devices. Many automotive manufacturers are also integrating technology into their vehicles supporting hands-free services for phone calls and texting. One of the most popular is Ford Sync, which is available on nearly every Ford vehicle.

I'm all for personal responsibility, really I am. The road, however, is not a place where this applies. Example: if you hit my car with whatever you happen to be driving because you were two self important to wait to take that call or reply to that text... I'm going to have the worst neck injury ever... full on stretcher action and you won't be able to afford that cellphone anymore when I'm done. If someone hits me and it's an honest mistake, I'll swap information and be on my way.

They should just ban people from using their phone when driving. If they don't text then they'll just surf facebook and write on each other's walls. If you outlaw facebook then they'll find something else. It'll never end.

Even if you pass a law against phones, people will find something else. At least these idiots spent all their money in their phones these days that they can't afford subs anymore. That was the craze when I was in college in 2002 along with street racing and making annoying mods to your car. EG park benches trunk or spoiler, flip up stereo deck with all kinds of crazy animations distracting the shit out of you, LCD screens all over the place playing porn or rap videos.

One way or another people will find ways to go full retard. NEVER GO FULL RETARD!

Those against the laws because they think it's overreaching into their area of personal responsibility seem to forget their responsibility not to endanger other people should be legislated for. It should be illegal to text message if those actions lead to the death of someone other than yourself.

I've been hit from behind seven times. Five of them were under very specific circumstances: I was in the right lane on a highway going the speed limit, some idiot was tailgating me because I was going the speed limit, and some other moron merges onto the highway at 10-15 under the speed limit. I had to hit my brakes, and I got hit for it.

The problem: I had three cars that, while the body damage was repaired, the mechanical damage (brakes that wouldn't release, crumpled muffler, electric windows knocked out of their tracks) was not because the insurance company claimed it wasn't caused by the accident. With all three cars, I had to junk them (sell them to the scrap yard for $100) because they were no longer drivable. In addition, I had to pay over $13,000 in medical bills on stuff the insurance company wouldn't cover. To this day, I still have pain in my neck because of arthritis from the swelling caused by the injuries.

Now I have to live with the pain in my neck and loss of my hard earned money because of someone else's bad decisions.

Just this morning, after a night of snow, rain, and freezing temps, with the roads iced over and a not so healthy level of slush on the road, I came across three people doing 20-25 mph while the traffic around them is doing 30-35, talking on the phone and not paying attention to what was happening around them. One of them did wipe out a bit making a right turn while she was still talking on the phone, and ran into the opposite curb with her back tire, rendering her car undrivable. I felt sorry for the guy in the left turn lane who's hood and windshield got hit by the sign she knocked over.

So, you see, other people have to live with your bad decisions. While I frequently agree with you on many of your opinions, this one is about as asinine as it can be. Take your brain out of your rear end, put it back in your head, and actually use it.